Which is it?

 Talk about mixed signals. 

This is an eye-opening move, is it not?

RUSSIA has started deploying nuclear missiles toward its border with Finland in wake of the nation's bold NATO bid.

Menacing mobile Iskander missiles were spotted being transported towards the dividing line as desperate Putin throws a troubling tantrum.

The video documentation is accompanied by some taunting narration:

Chilling dashcam footage appears to show a fleet of the deadly Iskander missiles en route to Vyborg - just 24 miles from the Finnish border - on Monday.

The commentary in the clip suggested a "new military unit is about to be formed" - in the immediate aftermath of the Nordic nation's NATO application. 

The person behind the lens explained: "As soon as the president of Finland said they were joining NATO, a whole division of Iskanders, seven of them…  is moving towards Vyborg.

“Looks like a new military unit is about to be formed in Vyborg or the region.

 “All the equipment is new, Ural trucks are driving it. So get ready Finns, to join NATO.

“New Urals, seven Iskanders, looks like a new military unit is being formed - well done.”

But then there's this:

[T]hree months into a Ukraine invasion that’s not going according to plan, and after two other countries close to Russia announced that they are joining NATO, Putin appears to be softening his tone, and resigning himself to the fact that NATO’s eastward expansion is happening anyway.

On Sunday, Finland—which shares an 800-mile border with Russia and was part of the Russian Empire for over a century—said it had applied to join NATO to ensure that its own national security would not be threatened by Russia in the future. On Monday, Sweden followed suit after a meeting amongst ruling party officials over the weekend, who voted to end the country’s 200-year neutrality policy.

“The issue at hand is whether military nonalignment will keep serving us well?” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Sunday. “We’re facing a fundamentally changed security environment in Europe.”

For months, Russian officials have warned against the two countries taking this decisive step, but now that it has actually happened, Putin appears to be doing his best to diminish the significance of the act.

"As for the expansion of NATO, including through new members of the alliance which are Finland, Sweden — Russia has no problems with these states,” Putin said Monday at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance composed of several post-Soviet states.

This juxtaposition of developments bears watching.